I have never thought that bad police officers were anything but a small minority of police forces, but unfortunately lack of accountability, a general unwillingness to punish bad officers, and even protection provided to bad officers by good ones all combine to let these bad officers do a lot of damage.

The video, posted below, shows Fauklenberry standing outside his home when three deputies walk up with guns drawn, responding to a false report from his mentally ill son after a spat over homework, who had accused his father of being drunk and carrying a gun.

Not only does Faulkenberry not own a gun, he was not drunk.

“The video plainly shows that at no point during the entire incident did the plaintiff offer any resistance or assault any of the deputies.

...

Not only did Faulkenberry not assault deputies, the video shows Caldwell County Sergeant Dustin M. Yost using a judo-type leg sweep on Faulkenberry, causing him to fall down, even though he appeared to be fully cooperating.

Then all three deputies can be seen piling on top of him with one deputy punching him in the eye and another pushing him down with his knee.

The video also revealed at no point in the video did Faulkenberry assault deputy Michael Taylor and deputy Houseton, which they claimed as justification for their use of force.

Faulkenberry was arrested for felony assault on a public servant, resisting arrest and aggravated assault with a firearm.

One wonders how many innocent people went to jail, and still go to jail, because police know that they can make any story stick -- at least until video evidence started to appear, and even then it is hart to convict police of obvious crimes.

Postscript: I would add that this case illustrates one of my issues with the BLM approach to police violence -- it is not just an issue of racism. This is a white victim. And since it is really hard to fix racism anyway (thought there are police training programs that can help), the solution has to also involve a lot of hard work changing rules and union contracts to increase police accountability, hard work that pretty much is not happening or even being discussed anywhere -- instead we are arguing about NFL millionaires taking a knee during the national anthem.

16 Comments

wreckinball:

Police brutality is an issue. Its just not a racial issue.
99.9% of NFL fans are against police brutality and racism. The reason 70-80% oppose the anthem protests is its the wrong venue. The anthem is supposed to be a respectful ceremony. I am for women priests and allowing priests to marry in the Catholic church. A majority of Catholics agree.
If I decided to disrupt and stage a sit in protest during a mass no one would be listening to my message. They would be outraged by using mass as an avenue for protest.

dreck:

Smoke and mirrors - there is a real issue here, but instead of focusing on the very real issue (and yes, it's not a black vs white issue, it's an issue of accountability and enforcement of laws against police officers) that is getting completely ignored because it's been made partisan and there's a visible non-issue we can all pontificate about.

ErikTheRed:

I don't know if it's a "wrong" venue in the moral sense; after all the stadium is "their house" (or at least rented for the day) and they can say whatever they want. It's certainly a stupid venue from a business perspective, because they are entertainers and delivering a message offensive to a significant portion of their fan base is not good business. It may make sense in an Austrian Economic analysis in that they value delivering their message more than they value their business success - but that's literally their business. As consumers we can either continue to buy their products or not.

Protesting against a religion inside of their church is probably not OK unless they explicitly allow that sort of thing, which churches generally do not. It's not public property and it's not your property, so abiding by their "house rules" is the thing to do.

wreckinball:

Stadiums are typically leased to the owners of the team from the city/county whatever. It is the owner's house. The players have no ownership rights. The owner's IMO have stupidly allowed their employees to stage a protest which most of their customers (the fans) hate.

My point was that its the protest they hate not the underlying message. No one likes racism and no one likes police brutality. The venue and the protest method are just all wrong. People get upset over the disrespect and basically don't care what their message is.

wreckinball:

wreckinball:

Bistro:

In all probability, if I'm called as a juror, I'm not going to believe a single word the police say and I'm not going to believe any evidence run through a police forensics lab. They lie about everything these days and even when they're caught they don't suffer any punishment. It's the taxpayers that are paying for the criminal police when they are caught but the cop goes right back to work on the streets as an armed cop.

davesmith001:

cc:

After the EMTs saved my life, I went to the fire station with cookies. They have no front door or doorbell so I walked in the back big bay open door, holding my cookies. The cop stationed there jumped up and ran to me and got in my face as if I was a crook (I'm white). I told him I had cookies for the EMTs--it took him a minute to calm down and he still was muttering that I had no right to be there. And this is in a very nice safe suburb. These guys get lots of training in procedures and arrests but none in treating people well. On the cop shows they threaten witnesses and rough up suspects who turn out not to be the right one. I'm afraid these are realistic.

Matthew Slyfield:

Billford:

I so very wish that BLM activists would play this video a bunch, and say something like: This is an example of what Texas police do to a white guy standing in front of his house with his arms up. The only reason we know about it is because of the video. Can you imagine what gets done to a kid with dark skin by police on the side of the road where nobody is around?

marque2:

You have 5 likes now - but one of mine. The reason the anthem is played at the beginning is that fans like it. You don't have to like it - but personally I find it part of the fun of going to a game.

Imagine going to your favorite venue or store and instead of having the things you enjoy about it - they take some away and then - insist on airing grievances on you, and complain about you personally before you are allowed to continue shopping or consuming. I don't think Nordstom would ever adopt that model. JC Penny tried and their sales tanked for a year.

marque2:

I don't like being accused of racism by a bunch of spoiled elite sports players who I just shelled $600 bucks to watch with the family - especially when it is for paying for the privilege to watch people mostly not of my race who earn more in a year than I will see in two lifetimes. Seems odd that racist white guys would pay big bucks to see minority players.

And what makes me racist - when one of the players - regardless of race beats up, or kills a girlfriend for being pregnant, deals drugs, kills animals or kills gay friends, tries to kill a police officer, etc - I want the police to put them in jail just as I would demand for people committing similar crimes who are of my own race. That is what makes me racist.